Mandelson rejects ACP liberalisation criticism

By Nicola Smith

Date: 28/04/05

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has rejected criticism of the Economic Partnership Agreements that the EU is negotiating with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

He said fears that the liberalisation of trade with 79 countries in the ACP bloc would wipe out swathes of small farms and producers unable to compete with a flood of cheap foreign import were unjustified.

"How you organise these partnerships and the terms on which they are agreed will prevent this from happening," he said.

He said non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were misguided in their belief that the world's poorest countries should be allowed to take a breather from liberalisation and protect their fragile domestic markets in order to develop.

In the margins of the ACP-EU joint parliamentary assembly in Mali last week, a small battalion of farmers joined aid NGOs to express strong fears that the EPAs would destroy their businesses.

African markets were already filling up with cheaper Chinese rice and European chicken and tomatoes, they reported.

"It is too dangerous for us," said Ibrahim Coulibaly, a Malian farmer, of the plans for EPAs.

"No country can develop with liberalisation. There is not one example in the world. We will not be producers, we will only be consumers, so how can we develop?"

Djibo Bagna, a Nigerian poultry farmer, added his complaint that he was being forced out of the domestic market by cheap imports of European chicken, much of which was deemed unfit for human consumption.

Mandelson said he did not believe that ACP countries could attract investment by turning their backs on international trade and becoming closed economies. He added that the agreements would lift developing countries out of poverty rather than create greater hardship.

"The issue is capacity, investment in their economy, growth of regional markets, so that they can grow trade and grow their businesses," he said.

• Nicola Smith is a freelance journalist based in Brussels.

The European Commissioner for Trade, Peter Mandelson, rejected criticism of the Economic Partnership Agreements which the EU was negotiating with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. He opposed non-governmental organisations saying that fears that the liberalisation of trade with 79 countries in the ACP bloc would wipe out swathes of small farms and producers in these countries, unable to compete with a flood of cheap foreign import, were unjustified.

European Commission: DG Trade: Trade issues: Bilateral trade relations: Regions: Africa, Caribbean, Pacific http://ec.europa.eu/comm/trade/issues/bilateral/regions/acp/index_en.htm

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